Warlords of Draenor Developer Interviews
There were a few developer interviews at the recent press events, so today we are taking a look at an interview with Alex Afrasiabi from games.on.net.

There is no guarantee that all character models will be done by release, but they hope to have most ready.

The biggest thing stopping players from coming back is leveling.

As the game got older, more and more content was added, which makes it harder for people to catch up when they return.

Having to deal with all of the other things that are a part of coming back to the game along with leveling is too much for some people.

When you come back to the game and use a boost, your bars are cleared, talents unlearned,

The team also looked at significantly increasing experience rates rather than offering a boost, but it didn't feel great and the boost was the better option.

Warlords of Draenor - New Blingtron
It looks like Engineers will be getting a new Blingtron in Warlords of Draenor, but not a new mount.

Official Class Roles Forums Closing (EU)

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Hello everyone,

So that player discussions remain concentrated in existing forums where they receive more attention from other players, we have made the decision to retire the following forums. These forums will be deactivated next week:

In preparation for their final closure, these forums will remain accessible in Read Only mode, but will be removed permanently on 8 April 2014. If you wish to save any relevant information, please do so before then.

Blue Tweets

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

ClassesWill New Veng buff self heals? Dev team's goal for value of Bonus Armor vs other stats (situational or always good)?
Yes, it'll buff self heals. Bonus Armor is always good, except the extremely rare case where you're taking no physical damage. (Celestalon)Or the damage bypasses armor.I think having physical-flagged damage that bypasses armour is a silly design. Just use magic to do it.
Not at all. Bleeds, sonic spells, etc... All totally make sense as non-magic but not reduced by armor. (Celestalon)OK I'll give you those! But what about things like Malkorok's Blood Rage. It is an obvious physical weapon attack.
Balance. We don't want to hit clothies harder than plate/shield wearers for that. (Celestalon)

haste, that you'd get the 84 damage in exactly 14 seconds, with the partial tick appearing 14.0s after cast (6 DPS).
Yes, duration never changes. You'll get the partial tick at 14sec after cast. DPS won't have breakpoints. (Celestalon)Are you still planning to give everyone a Pandemic mechanic?
Yes, but 130% duration max, not 150%. (Celestalon)So if you recast way before the first partial tick, will you end up with "queued" partials?
No, partial ticks are only when the dot falls off before its' next scheduled tick. (Celestalon)

Warlords of Draenor Statsdo you know how current dodge/parry stats on items will be changing in 6.0? Should I stockpile them "just in case"?
They'll be replaced with other useful stats. (Celestalon)

I knew that Cleave got dropped. I thought socket/multistrike/readiness were all rare 'bonus tertiaries' in WoD. Got a source?
No, Multistrike and Readiness are full, legitimate secondary stats, like Haste/Crit/Mastery. Socket is a bonus tertiary. (Celestalon)still wondering how you're gonna make Multistrike appeal to tanks.
Been working on that recently. Nothing to announce yet, but it'll be spec-specific passives that interact with multistrike. (Celestalon)so things like grand crusader, revenge, Crimson scourge?
Yeah, that style of ability (though different effects). (Celestalon)

Does everyone have a baseline level of Multistrike / Readiness, like Crit & Mastery, or is it possible to have 0, like Haste?
Zero baseline. (Celestalon)

PvEHow were Large Anima Golems supposed to be used in the Dark Animus encounter, especially on heroic?
To buy you more time on the enrage. But they ended up being too dangerous/disruptive to make it worth the benefit. (WatcherDev)

Could some indication that a spell is armor ignoring physical be added to the DJ? It is occasionally unclear.
It's certainly something we can do a better job of calling out when it comes to tank mechanics. (WatcherDev)

PvPWill we see any balance changesonce the new PvP Gear shows its full effect ?
Perhaps. At this point we will only be able to do hotfixes which limits our options. (holinka)

Any chance we could see TB and WG put in as 40v40 BGs so they are full?
More focused on building Ashran. WG and TB had their time to shine. It would take a lot of work to restore them properly. (holinka)

Hard to get conquest losing in flag cap RBGs compared to losing in an AB-style RBG. Intended? Flag cap = so black and white.
It's the nature of CTF. You're comparing a map with a score of 3 to a map with a score of 1600. (holinka)

Warlords of DraenorAny plans on making Thorim soloable for everyone?
Changed in 6.0: Thorim won't trigger the deathball/reset when his arena is empty. (WatcherDev)Valithria is soloable, not sure what is wrong.
By, say, a warrior? Probably just going to make her skippable. (WatcherDev)Yeah, that was a joke (coming from a healer), but great to hear Ulduar/ICC are getting a look - how about Vezax?
What's the concern with Vezax? (WatcherDev)Yeah, Vezax and the trash leading up to him won't be there. Need to soft reset.
Fixed that also (in 6.0). Thanks. Could happen if you killed one of the Keepers very quickly. (WatcherDev)

Considering they thought that making harder heroics would be a good idea for group finder groups and also that making a fuck ton of dailies would be good for end game content, it's not exactly too far fetched to believe they didn't think of it straight up.

Latest I see is November, but Earliest is September, maybe August if they can push it. But not counting on it.

Eh, I'm still of the personal opinion that Blizzard is saying 'Fall 2014' to give themselves wiggle room, because if we do see a September release date or later, that's an entire year with no new content, something Blizzard has stated that they've been wanting to seriously avoid repeating after Wrath, and to a lesser extent, Cataclysm.

IF I were to quit, I'd just quit and be done with it all. People like you confuse me to no end as to why you must come around bashing something you no longer play and obviously don't care about anymore.

So you are going nuts and getting mad over something that does not concern you anymore since you stopped playing so long ago, how about you just go away since what happens in WoW now really does apply to you anymore..

- - - Updated - - -

Originally Posted by Nexsa

You quit four years ago? Why.. are you still on a forum for WoW?

IF I were to quit, I'd just quit and be done with it all. People like you confuse me to no end as to why you must come around bashing something you no longer play and obviously don't care about anymore.

Yeah really stumped me why they would come here bashing on a game they no longer play..

Doesn´t care, they are selling this expac with the new characters as a plus, so don´t having them for the release is an illegal move at least in Europe(selling things with misleading adversiting), they are fooling the clients with that publicity!

How long have you been playing WOW? They have said the same thing with the same vague "no guarantees" about every single thing they've ever done or made. So you've been fine with it until now. Just pretend you still are as ignorant as usual.

I find this highly unlikely. But, I don't have their internal data, so maybe it's true.

As the game got older, more and more content was added, which makes it harder for people to catch up when they return.

That's why you keep adding more and more catch up mechanics. Not a way to bypass the entire experience.

Having to deal with all of the other things that are a part of coming back to the game along with leveling is too much for some people.

Then why exactly are they playing the game? They just want to skip it all and go straight to the end?

They team also looked at significantly increasing experience rates rather than offering a boost, but it didn't feel great and the boost was the better option.

That is truly the most pathetic excuse I've heard coming from a developer interview in a long time. They could have cut the amount of time to hit required to hit max level in half or even more if they wanted to! Anything else to make the experience "less painful" than just saying "swipe your credit card and we'll give you a raid-ready, level capped character instantly!"

They were worried about the earlier zones feeling dead, so they implemented cross-realm zone. CRZ was completely in vain when they implemented level 90 boost. And I know not everyone will use the boost, but so far, apparently over a hundred thousand already have. That's a lot less people populating those low level zones!

This should not have been added to the game until WoD was launched. And even then, having a level 90 character should be a requirement before you can boost another character to 90; just like how you needed a lvl 55 character to make a Death Knight.

What's the matter Blizz? Sub numbers looking a little bit low going into the new expansion, had to artificially boost your profits for the next shareholder meeting? Also, don't forget the fact that despite all of this, they are charging us $10 more for the expansion.

They should've just gave everyone a free level 60 back then since it took just as long if not longer than it does now to level to 90. Honest answer would be the game is 10 years old and the genre really offers nothing new so we along with everyone else lose subs. Also if they release the game later than the 10th anniversary I'd be shocked. Sometime around there would give them enough time to get things ready and make the launch kinda special?

I find this highly unlikely. But, I don't have their internal data, so maybe it's true.

What is your opinion on this matter then?

That's why you keep adding more and more catch up mechanics. Not a way to bypass the entire experience.

Then, by making catch up mechanics for 1-90 will simply destroy the experience for those who DO like to level and quest. The boost up mechanic is out there, it's a gift to people who know what they're doing, and you don't even have to use it. Ever!

Then why exactly are they playing the game? They just want to skip it all and go straight to the end?

We're talking about returning players. So yes, they have experienced all of this, or at least ... most of it. And they left for a reason. Maybe they do not like one expansion content, such as for example Pandaria? returning players will simply want to go and start playing the expansion they just bought. So yes, exactly.
Now, it is an option for new players, but I'd never use that boost as a new player unless I have friends on end game to play with. But that's just me I guess. I like to play the game I pay for, and paying for like.. 4 expansions including the main game just for 10 levels? I don't think any sane new player will agree to that.

That is truly the most pathetic excuse I've heard coming from a developer interview in a long time. They could have cut the amount of time to hit required to hit max level in half or even more if they wanted to! Anything else to make the experience "less painful" than just saying "swipe your credit card and we'll give you a raid-ready, level capped character instantly!"

Why would they do that? What if someone wants to enjoy leveling? Don't suggest things that only works for you. Leveling is too easy as it is, no need to make it a complete joke. People need to make effort when leveling a character, if they choose to.

The game will be released in december and not even with all new models? WTF blizzard! you are fooling everyone then with your "new models at game release " campaing publicity! what a shame . Blizzard is now full of liars and lazy fucks!

Technically as long as models are released DURING his xpac, there is no false advertising. All they said were "new models." They never said they would be at release as far as I know. And this isn't the first time they have brought this up. At least this time we are actually getting them. I for one, appreciate the fact that they are even bothering to upgrade the models, and I realize that takes time and resources. Meanwhile someone else is complaining about how <random element> is not getting the attention they think it should because they are busy upgrading models. Limited resources and the inability to make everyone happy all of the time? I think they are doing an awesome job.

The game will be released in december and not even with all new models? WTF blizzard! you are fooling everyone then with your "new models at game release " campaing publicity! what a shame . Blizzard is now full of liars and lazy fucks!

You pissed me off in 7AM! You mad bro?

Before you even starting making any post and accusing someone, why don't you check is that even true? As I saw they announce new models in WoD (not on release date).

Later in comments you wrote "I stopped playing 4 years ago?". WTF you even care about this? If active players (Like me and majority of ppl that comment) don't really care about this, why are you mad?

Blizzard is full of liars and lazy fucks? I never had so much exp with devs and I rly can't comment that, but I posted tons of tickets in my WoW game life and I can't remember that I got same GM twice, or even via skype before they switch on phone callback. They are doing their job, only you think that is easy..

I think that you are only one who is full if lies... Go play with legos

Doesn´t care, they are selling this expac with the new characters as a plus, so don´t having them for the release is an illegal move at least in Europe(selling things with misleading adversiting), they are fooling the clients with that publicity!

I think I would bet on the legal team of Activision vs a raging teenager on a gaming forum in regards to breaking any laws.

So they put a whopping $60 price tag on it. I am battling to see how that is going to encourage players to return. Yes, I know about the 1 free level 90. Returning players better pick wisely because once you click that button it's $60 to change your mind.

"They team also looked at significantly increasing experience rates rather than offering a boost, but it didn't feel great and the boost was the better option."

uhu charge for a boost or update the experience rates for free..

cant say im surprised they went with the money option

it is free with the expansion for returning players. They could have done bonus exp with the xpansion and sold exp potions in the store, it would have been the same thing, right? Just because they could have gone with a different FREE option doesn´t mean they wouldn´t have added a pay option in the store.